While I do agree with the sentiment behind it, I replied to the original poster that it’s not in the list of human rights as agreed upon.

Because I like simplicity, I found this website which tells you about the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in an easy to understand form. (Yes, it’s for children. I said I like simple, right?)

I also had a problem with the claim that we are forced to buy and wear clothes. I don’t think that’s true. We’re supposed to cover up, dictated by law, in the name of ‘decency’ (theirs, not ours). Walking around in a cardboard box is also covering up, even if you found (did not buy) that box.

Perhaps this blog post is too much over such a tweet but I do like to check the facts before I make claims like the original poster made in his tweet.

Thinking further on this subject, I wonder how far one could go in the clothing arena. On textile beaches, the amount of actual textile can dwindle down to something you can’t even make a handkerchief of.

Or, like the lady on the right, would something like this go against the hairs of the textile-loving community? She is dressed, after all, and from the looks of her, the dress and the location it’s a very expensive design too.

We all know that clothing is massively overrated these days. I recall seeing people in wool hoodies when it’s so hot that birds faint in flight. Long coats and long pants when the asphalt is close to melting. These people take things a few notches too far.

Do you call yourself a nudist? A naturist? I hope you’re happy with your choice.

More and more I see how these ‘labels’ are abused by the porn-happy community, and that makes me think.

Is it still a good thing to call myself a naturist when that name, or title, or what have you, is being dragged through the mud so often?

The pros.

Sticking with nudist or naturist name/label is probably the strongest statement that we’re not giving in to what the porn-happy community tries to make of our lifestyle. The problem here, of course, is that we’re up against a giant ‘opposition’, even when that mostly lives online. Since more and more of our lives take place online, that’s something we can see as a battleground.

The cons.

With porn sites abusing the naturist and nudist label, it’s increasingly difficult to convince the textile world that these sites are wrong and we are right. Most certainly considering the rise of the prudes that we can witness. It’s as if the opposite of the sixties is surfacing.

Because of these things, I sometimes wonder if it’s worth sticking to one of those two labels. Perhaps “clothes-free” is a better option. After all, one would think that “clothes-free” would be a neutral enough way of describing who we are and how we would like to be.

Alas, that won’t hold water for long either, I realised, after some more thinking. Nudist was the best word long ago. Then it became naturist, be it mostly in Europe. Why change again? Whatever name we think up, there will be some crowd that finds a way to drag it through their personal kind of mud.

That is what made me decide that nudist and naturist are perfect. Let’s take pride in the history of those words, of the people who paved the way for us to be naturists and nudists.

Isn’t that disgusting? And we all pay the price for this because it’s sensation and sensation sells. People like you and I aren’t interesting enough, apart from the fact that we like to walk around naked. The uninteresting bit about is that we don’t ‘go wild’. We don’t have sex in the street, we keep to ourselves. Heck, in general, we have the name to clean up after ourselves better than our dressed human counterparts.

A good thing in this article above is the ‘naturist’. (Note the quotes!) Obviously the source wherever this article originated knows the difference, which is something to be grateful for. (I can’t tell where the article came from, there are too many links with the same title to check.)

This kind of faketurist is hard to battle. On the few social media where we can still have some influence, we can stand up and point them out, but the hidden kind, like this individual up here, operates in darkness and then suddenly throws a bomb in our midst.

They have nothing to do with real naturism or nudism. I wish there was a way to eradicate all that ignorance once and for all…

It’s not a big surprise, is it?

It’s probably not a surprise to most of you reading this: being nude brings happiness. This of course counts if you can be nude in the right circumstances.

A right circumstance.

As the above image shows, simple things in life can make a person happy, and there is no need for anything like clothing involved. Even the basic action of removing those layers of fabric, leather, plastic or whatever people put on is a reason to be cheerful. Which reminds me of an album by Ian Dury, by the way…

…and no, you don’t have to watch the video or listen to the song if you don’t feel like it. 😉

Why does being naked make people happy?

For this, I think, we need to look at the beginning. The beginning of life. Look at children and how they like to be naked. How many children hate being or getting dressed when they’re not yet ‘used’ to that?

As nature intended

The adult ‘problem’ with this is that same being used to clothes. It’s ingrained into our mind and system, and only the lucky few naturists and nudists haven’t lost that connection to nature. We probably all know how hard it is to change someone’s mind regarding nudity when that person hasn’t been in contact with her or his or its skin in a long time.

Now I don’t know all of you who read my blog (for which I sincerely thank you) but I think it’s the connection to that early joy of nakedness that makes it easy for naturists (and nudists, yes, I know) to find their way back to that feeling if ever they have lost it for a while. If you were brought up in a naturist family and never had to lose the connection, even better. Not everyone is so lucky.

The lucky circumstances.

WNBR

What are your lucky circumstances? Do you hang out naked in your home to feel that happiness? Do you participate in World Naked Bike Rides for the feeling or for an extra boost? Are you lucky enough to have a garden where you can be naked and happy?

I’d like to hear from you. Your words can make a difference to everyone who visits this page, and this way, together, we can make the world a better, happier place. And we all know the world needs that.

That’s something I realised a while ago. Being undressed in the right weather / temperature conditions has become so natural to me that I hardly think about it.

(This is not my front door!)

That’s also the reason why I opened the front door naked a few times this summer; it was Very, really Very Warm for a long time.

The interesting bit was that some people, after their initial surprise, seemed to pay little mind to my (lack of) attire. Especially after explaining why I wasn’t wearing clothes. It was – in a way – weird to find that many people at the door understood the reason immediately, but that I had to explain the why to them first.

After hearing that, most of them agreed that it was a clever thing to do. Such encounters tell me that being naked is basically accepted by many people, but that the actual doing is something that doesn’t cross their mind until they see someone who actually does it. (Leading by example, anyone?)

But back to the original question: Do you still ‘know’ you’re naked when you’re naked?

Out on a forest walk.

Being naked has become natural to me. It’s the best way to be. I tell everyone who is open enough to hear it. (Which is a surprising thing too, sometimes people I least suspect of being open about nudity are most open about nudity.)

The thing I am sensitive about it temperature. Not being nude. And I’m curious to learn about your experiences!

Driving naked

I talked about this before. Intrigued as I was by the comment of Artur, I decided to look into the Dutch laws about the need to be dressed while driving. I spent several hours going through all kinds of law texts, searched for stuff on a Dutch law website, and I came up with nothing related to the need to be dressed. The only law article that came up several times was the famous 430a, which ‘regulates’ the options for being nude in places. It decrees that you can’t be nude in public places. Places that are obviously not suited for it. Places where lots of people pass by.

This brings up the argument if the inside of your own car is a public place or not. I would assume it’s not. In a public place everyone can come in and sit down. That is not the case with my car. Now you may argue that it’s public enough for people to look inside and see a nude person in there. Correct. However, in the Netherlands it’s legal to be nude in your own house without having all drapes or curtains closed. People looking inside do so on their own risk.

Also it is okay to be naked in outside places where people can ‘look in’, meaning that you can be naked without having to take precautions not to be seen (a.k.a. ‘offend’ others). Places like this, on the right. Hardly a through road, right?

Apparently it’s mostly illegal over there, but restrictions happen on a per state basis, so know your rights. The most important thing there is what I’ve always said and thought also: don’t do crazy stuff. Drive like a normal person. Don’t attract attention. If there is no reason for people to look at your car (and you), they won’t. They’ll just drive on, paying attention to traffic as they (and you) should.

England

Considering the post I made about freehiking in the U.K. which details quite precisely what is okay and what isn’t, I would guess that driving nude there is safe also, provided you are in control of your vehicle (wear shoes).

Again

Yes, I know, I’ve posted about this several times before because it’s a topic I really am intrigued with since there are (at least in the Netherlands, as I said) no actual rules that I’ve found. And I love driving clothes free because of the liberating feeling that nudity gives me.

Have you driving naked? In what country? Do you have tips and suggestions? With enough feedback I might compile a ‘driving naked’ page with them!

Fashion. Worse than you might know.

Let me tell you something. Second to oil, fashion and textiles is the most polluting industry in the world. Did you know that? I didn’t. I read about it here. I don’t know if you headed over to read the article. Here’s a summary of the facts:

It can take more than 20,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton.

Up to 8,000 different chemicals are used to turn raw materials into clothes.

The clothing that doesn’t sell, falls apart or goes out of style usually ends up on landfills.

Wow. Impressive, isn’t it? According to classiccotton.org 3/4 of all produced clothes end up on landfills. Now that is scary.

Naturism, a.k.a. common sense.

After these figures it’s even more evident that people who prefer nudity are on the smart side of the scale. I hope that all the clothes we don’t buy make a difference. Less water wasted, fewer chemicals all over the place, and less garbage and waste.

Of course there will always be garbage, but I almost fell out of my chair when I read how much junk is created by the manufacturing of clothes. But… did you see the number of chemicals used? Up to eight thousand! And that is used on stuff everyone happily puts on their skin. I’m convinced most of that stuff will be washed out with 20,000 litres (that is almost 5,200 gallons, for non-litre people) of water per kilo / 2 lbs. but still. All that stuff has to go somewhere. Do you trust the fashion industry enough to make sure that any remaining chemical is caught and discarded in a responsible manner? I wouldn’t put my money on that.

After digging into all this matter I am even more inclined not to wear clothes as much as I can. We hear about pollution and such every day, but the fashion industry is a market that goes on doing that without anyone batting an eye at it. If we talk about dirty secrets: new clothes have them!

What is normal and what isn’t?

One of the biggest misconceptions today is that people don’t seem to understand the difference between normal and natural. Not everything that’s normal is natural.

Natural is what we find in and do with nature.

Normal is a result of the general acceptance of ‘norms’ in a group of people. Like, you guessed it, wearing clothes.

I know I’ve touched this subject several times, but I can’t stress it enough. Nor can I hope enough that clothed people will read this and start understanding the difference between normal and natural. So many things are being called natural while they are only normal. For example most people consider it natural to own a car. Seeing what the manufacturing of cars, and the pollution from the exhausts does to nature, I would dare to say that nature doesn’t agree.

Crap – was I wrong??

Cars don’t grow on trees, so they aren’t natural.

Clothes don’t grow on trees either, so for that simple reason they fall in the normal category. This to the chagrin of many a naturist or nudist who prefers to be natural when the weather and environment don’t require that normality.

Benefits of normal

Of course there are benefits to having norms. Not going around killing everyone you don’t like is one of them, a norm that in general most people seem to adopt quite easily.

Driving on the same side of the road as anyone else in your country (after picking one of those cars from a tree) is another one that I consider a good norm. I’m sure everyone can list another of such norms that makes sense. (Not making a lasso out of two rattle snakes, for instance.)

Natural and why that’s smarter

Being clothes-free when you don’t need clothes is smart because you don’t sweat in those clothes. Sweat, trapped in fabric, causes unpleasant odours.

Being clothes-free will decrease the need for air conditioners tremendously.

Eating natural food is much healthier than stuff that comes from labs and adjacent factories. But what about allergies, I hear some of you say. Allergies seem to arise from the chemical warfare you wage on your body by eating the stuff from aforementioned labs. My rule of thumb is that if a package contains at least 2 ingredients I can’t pronounce, I don’t buy it. And what about the colouring additives to make food look nicer? I can do without that. Spots in apples? Please, if that means there was no DDT on them. Did you know that margarine in its pure state is white? It has food colouring added to it so it looks like butter.

Nudism. Naturism.

Is there a difference? I know that in most of the US of A the words are used interchangeably.

Nudists or naturists?

I also know that in Europe, for instance, the two words are used differently. Naturism appeared after nudism. I’ve been thinking about those two words recently.

Thoughts on the difference.

Nudism. The word has ‘nude’ as its base. Being nude. Like the people in the image on the right, playing bowling, having a clothes free, good time. Great for them, and if you’d ask me I’d join them in an instant. For one it’s a great way to be socially nude, and for another it would be nice to practice bowling again. (I truly suck at it.)

Naturism. The word has ‘nature’ at its base. Being with/part of nature, like the people

on the left. Naked in nature, being part of it and experiencing it that way. Exposing themselves to the real, rough world in their own vulnerability. It’s a way to get things into perspective.

An average human, in clothing (be it protective or not), will consider himself or herself master of the world, maybe because we’ve conquered just about everything. How untrue such a statement is when you’re naked and perhaps even afraid!

“Naked and afraid”

We’ve not conquered things. We’re adjusting them – and often with disastrous results, like the acid rain the world faced and still faces, climate change, and earthquakes that happen because we empty the earth below us from fossil fuels.

Can you be a nudist and a naturist?

I think that’s perfectly possible. Being naked in and around your house, whenever that’s possible, makes you a nudist (in my view at least). Enjoying the outside in the nude, being close to and having respect for nature (one of the pillars of naturism according to the INF) makes you a naturist.

More and more I feel like dropping all those words and labels. Be who you really are. Be naked and nude and a nudist and a naturist and clothes-free. As long as you feel good about it and you don’t intend to shock others when you’re in your natural state.

“Nude” swimming

It’s so odd if you think about it. Nude swimming. Who in their right mind would put on clothes to go swimming?

Oh. Right. People would do this.

On your left you see original Victorian bathing suits. Can you imagine the agony of having to haul all that around while you’re trying to swim?

I’ve researched this for my book ‘The Unsworth Manor Nudes‘ (available on Amazon) and not only did they have these amounts of cloth hanging around them, the ladies even utilized ‘bathing machines’. Wagons that rolled into the water so people couldn’t see any skin (what skin?).

My first time

The first time I swam au naturel was at a sauna-like place. They had heated pools inside and out, and I went there with a few friends in the middle of a serious winter. The sensation was incredible, especially when getting out of the water. I’m sure that most nude-swimmers will understand and recognise that. If ever you have the opportunity to do this, do it. Swimming outside when there’s snow all around is incredible.

Skinny dipping

Another expression I wonder about is ‘skinny dipping’. I call that swimming. Putting on clothes to swim is just odd. Nobody will wonder what you’re trying to conceal beneath those bits of fabric. The only proper way to swim is still naked, as far as I’m concerned. Getting out of the water with wet fabric hanging off you (and showing everything that’s beneath it very often!) feels bad and cold.